hello I want to inform v380 about a problem in the app that is very annoying. I cant set the light sensibility down and I get alarm every 10 seconds.

@helig

Thank you for raising this issue. IT HAS NOW BEEN RESOLVED and all services should now be fully functional.

The certificate renewal is mostly automated, but there was a separate DNS issue affecting the renewal.

Thanks, Robert

@Jouster-74

Thanks for confirming it’s working for you now!

-Robert

@matt187

Thanks for pointing this out. The Echo Show 5 should work for most cameras when using the Monocle Gateway. Wansview cameras seem to be problematic however, they work on older Echo Show devices, but not the latest 5" and 8" models. Good to know that accessing their streams through the Synology NVR software/platform will allow them to work with Alexa devices. I’ll have to play with that setup here as well.

Thanks, Robert

@GreggC

Thank you for using our Amazon link :-)
Every little bit helps !!!

@gstlouis

Let me know if you come up with a successful FFMPEG solution. The last time I tried testing this, the re-encoding created too much latency for a solution where someone wished to view a live camera stream.

For my cameras, I simply configured the primary streams to output 1080P instead of higher 2K or 4K streams.

Thanks, Robert

@BrianUsher

Thanks for your comments and helping out. I don’t have any Dericam cameras to test with here.

Thanks, Robert

@cory_booth

More details in this thread:
https://forum.monoclecam.com/topic/482/unifi-g3-flex-was-working-now-not

Basically, the Echo Show 5 & 8 now require using the Monocle Gateway software whereas the older original Echo Show and Echo Spot did not.

Please see: https://monoclecam.com/monocle-gateway

Thanks, Robert

@jkeith248

I believe the only way would be to configure your camera stream for a different resolution/aspect ratio – one that better matches the Alexa device/FireTV.
Using FireTV devices on my HD TVs results in a default aspect ratio of 16x9. So if I configured my camera stream (via the camera settings on the camera – not via monocle) to use a resolution of 1080P (1920*1080) I get a full screen view of the camera with no black bars.

Thanks, Robert

@MrM said in Possibility to show image direct to TV?:

Sorry for the delayed response.

Is there a way I could install the Alexa app onto the Android TV and thus enable the Monocle skill directly onto the TV without having to buy additional Fire Sticks solely for this purpose?

No, not at this time. Monocle is not an Android app but rather an Alexa Skill which means that the device must be running an OS that includes Alexa smart-home-camera support. So, only FireTV and Echo Shows are capable at this time.

Thanks, Robert

@chrisb306

I realize this response is WAY late … but …

I personally (definitely/deliberably) disable UPNP and any P2P (peer) networking options that many cameras seem to come enabled with today.

You can even go as far as to isolate the cameras to a separate VLAN and tightly limit inbound and outbound access. Of course this is more complex than most home users will undertake. I keep my cameras on a separate VLAN that has no inbound or outbound access to the Internet. I have Monocle Gateway on the same network as my Alexa devices as it requires that the Alexa devices can establish connections to it. The Monocle Gateway does require outbound access to the Internet (to reach Monocle servers) but no inbound access. The Monocle Gateway also must be able to access the cameras on the aforementioned camera VLAN.

EDIT: upnp is on but i guess it needs to be for the alexa to work??

No, as @pir8radio suggested, UPNP is not needed for Monocle / Alexa.

Thanks, Robert

@mike2874 said in Can't figure out this RTSP URL thing?:

Dahua IPC-HDW5231R-Z

Take a look at https://www.ispyconnect.com/man.aspx?n=dahua&page=8 and search for your specific camera model.
Next, look for the “VLC” or “FFMPEG” listings — these are typically the RTSP stream URLs.

Most Dahua based cameras use:

rtsp://X.X.X.X/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0

where X.X.X.X is the IP address of your camera. and subtype is typically 0 for the main stream and 1 for the sub-stream (if enabled).

It’s best to verify the RTSP stream with a software like VLC before bothering with Alexa & Monocle.
https://monoclecam.com/troubleshoot/validate-rtsp-url

Thanks, Robert

@breadman1984

The original Echo Show did not require using our Monocle Gateway software. As Amazon introduced newer versions such as the FireTV 4K devices and the latest Echo Show 5 & 8, these all now require using Monocle Gateway. I believe the FireTV Cube does in fact require using the Monocle Gateway to work.

Amazon basically now enforces stricter connection requirements to camera including only connecting on port 443, requiring SSL certificates and public DNS hostnames. So most home cameras really cannot achieve this and most home users would not want to go that that level of effort and complexity for each and every camera. Monocle Gateway can sit inside your network and satisfy these requirements by acting as a bridge between the Alexa devices and your IP cameras.

It’s a real bummer, but this is necessary to satisfy Amazon’s requirements and still maintain all your IP camera traffic locally. It appears they are really pushing for cloud connected cameras and don’t really care about the home user with private cameras.

Thanks, Robert

@Monocle Thanks for the heads up. I’ll take a look.

@aquazi said in Just wanted to say thanks! Hikvision, Show 5 and Synology setup:

I know a lot of effort goes into getting something like this off the ground and running and then providing support. So thanks Monocle team!

So it took a bit of effort but i finally have all 8 of my 8mp Hikvision camera’s running on this via the gateway on my Synology NAS.

A couple of bit which may help others outside of the guide:

The gateway on my Synology kept getting the ping timeout error - I had my NAS setup with a bond on both my ethernet - but it was set as load balance. I changed it to link aggregation and I could then ping my FQDN.

Next issue was the DNS binding - I have an ASUS WRT Mesh setup - my NAS is on a second node not using DHCP - which I had to setup to use the Google DNS.

After all that i still couldnt get any of the camera’s from Surveillance Station to work - 404 file not found error - even though the streams worked on VLC. Gave up and just connected directly to my Hikvision camera’s internal IP - using stream 2 at a lower resolution and H264 and that allowed me to keep H265+ for my Surveilance Station Recording - to save space on the NAS.

Thanks for the kind words and providing some useful info to other/future readers!

Thanks, Robert